Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power - Hardcover

Bloom, Jonathan; Blair, Sheila

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 157500092X ISBN 13: 9781575000923

Publisher: TV Books Inc, 2000

Synopsis

Covers the first one thousand years of Islamic history and culture, from the revelation of Muhammad to the Islamic empires.

About this title

Review:

It's sometimes difficult for Westerners not to write off Islam as a fanatical religion for war-like fundamentalists in turbans. In Islam: Empire of Faith, Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair have written an excellent resource which knocks such media-conditioned prejudice on the head. As professors of Islamic and Asian art at Boston College, they are well placed to unlock the complex history and culture of Islam for Western readers. This book and the BBC documentary series it ties in with should work well to break down our bigotry by providing a fascinating and enlightening introduction to Islamic culture. The authors avoid the complex modern history of the Muslim world and focus on the origin and rise of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries before dwelling on Islam's golden age between 750 and 1250. The third part of the book covers the age of empires from 1250 to the dawning of the 18th century.

Islam: Empire of Faith covers the politics, wars and in-fighting which have been part of Islam from the beginning, but the authors' real passion is Islamic culture. The sections describing the flowering of Islamic art, learning, and literature are the strongest sections. Despite the wide cultural divide between modern day Islam and the West, the writers succeed in showing how much we owe to the high culture of Islam at its peak. With 30 pages of illustrations, maps and a complete index, this book is an attractive and necessary introduction to a culture and religion which will continue to challenge the Western world. --Dwight Longenecker

Review:

"A timely study and important background to understanding the faith of more than one-fifth of the world's population today." -- John L. Esposito, University Professor, Georgetown University and author of Islam: The Straight Path and editor of The Oxford History of Islam

'well researched and accessible...fascinating' -- Cathy Dillon, The Irish Times, 2 March 2002

About this edition

• Publisher: TV Books Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 157500092X
• ISBN 13: 9781575000923
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 268